The accelerating crisis in homecare for older people is the culmination of several years of policy decisions at all levels (Care cuts leave elderly stuck in hospital, 5 January). The galloping tendency of leaving the provision of care to private-sector, multinational agencies has left many areas with local oligopolies and the consequent market distortions; the rush to drive down price at the expense of quality sets the scene for scandal; the move to restrict homecare to those with critical needs means that only those in serious and even life-threatening difficulties will get help.

But the reciprocity in 1968 was largely female-driven. Most of the men were in paid work. Women were mostly at home, they had children young, and the elderly died earlier – the equation adds up to a burden of care that was much more manageable. The landscape of life is very different four decades on. Now many more women are employed, they have children much later and they are often looking after an elderly relative at the same time. Time is the fuel of volunteering – and time, not altruism, is what's in short supply.

There are an estimated 1.5 million people with learning disabilities in the UK. This guidance will help central and local government organisations understand how they can communicate with all disabled people, including people with learning disabilities.

The guidance focuses on creating Easy Read, which uses simple words and pictures to communicate complex messages. People with learning disabilities are involved in developing the publications to make sure they are easy to understand.

This guidance demonstrates the government's commitment to ensuring everyone can understand information that affects their everyday lives and can participate in their own community.

Ministers plan to give personal care budgets to 1m elderly peopleMeasures in social care shake-up to be spelt out in white paper as part of 'big society project'

Social care can no longer be left to the state but was "everyone's responsibility," ministers said today when the government announced a white paper next year on how people should fund help in old age.

Paul Burstow, the Liberal Democrat care services minister, announced several measures, the most radical being the plan to put a million people in charge of their own personal care budgets, against the current 250,000.

Almost 700,000 children in the UK may be acting as carers for parents or other relatives, according to research published tomorrow. The figure is four times more than previously thought. The BBC surveyed more than 4,000 secondary school pupils using a specially-designed psychometric test. They found an "invisible army" – totalling 8% of those tested – were taking on caring roles, which included helping someone dress, bathe or shower. The number of young carers had been estimated at only 175,000, or 2%, based on the 2001 census, which had to be filled in by parents.

Academics who developed the 18-item questionnaire said the stigma of admitting some disabilities and that their children were helping look after them, meant that the census was always likely to under-represent the true figures.

Developing support services in the community along the lines of Prime Minister David Cameron’s “big society” could help 200 000 more people a year die where they would prefer to—at their home—rather than in hospital, a new report says.

Currently 290 000 people die in hospital every year in Britain, although two thirds of them—some 190 000—would prefer to die at home, shows a poll of more than 2000 people carried out for Demos, the political think thank that compiled the report.

"Clearly, more must be done to improve the quality of care. That is why the Coalition Government is determined to make the NHS more patient-centred. It is why we are focusing on achieving outcomes that are amongst the best in the world. Patient safety must always be at the heart of everything the NHS does."

A change to the definition of homelessness would be "very valuable", Lord Freud, the welfare minister, said yesterday, becoming the first coalition minister to argue for a change that many believe is necessary if the government is to liberalise the social housing market.

Speaking to the work and pensions select committee, Freud signalled a possible revision of the statutory definition of homelessness – last set out in 1986 – so that it need not include overcrowding, or the risk of homelessness.